My Football Facts & Stats | England National Football Team Statistics 1872-2016 Statistics detailing the results achieved against of all England's 86 different international opponents played so far with chronological table The England National football team is the joint oldest in the world, formed at the same time as Scotland's National Team . England played their first international match against Scotland at Scotland's invitation, at Hamilton Crescent in Scotland on 30th November 1872. Over the next forty years, England played exclusively with the other three "Home Nations" - Scotland, Wales and Ireland (later, Northern Ireland). The games were made competitive with the advent of the British Home Championship, sometimes called "Home Internations", from 1883 to 1984. Before Wembley was opened in 1923, England had no permanent home ground. England joined FIFA in 1906, playing its first ever game outside the British Isles in 1908. However, the relationship between the two was strained mainly due to the status and definition of amateurs, resulting in the British nations' departure from FIFA in 1928, before rejoining in 1946.

As a result, England did not compete in a FIFA World Cup until 1950, in which they were beaten in a 1-0 defeat against the United States, failing to get past the first round. England's first ever defeat on home soil to a non-UK team was a 0-2 loss to Ireland on September 21, 1949 at Goodison Park, Liverpool. A 6-3 loss in 1953 to Hungary was England's first ever defeat to a non-UK team at Wembley. England are one of the more successful footballing teams, being one of only seven countries to ever win the FIFA World Cup, which they did in 1966 when they hosted the finals. They defeated West Germany 4-2 in extra time in the Final. Since then, however, they have only reached the semi-finals once, losing to West Germany on penalties. Nevertheless, they remain a prominent team on the global stage, usually just inside or close to the top ten rankings of both FIFA and ELO.

Although Walter Winterbottom was appointed as the first ever full time manager in 1946, the team was still picked by an FA committee until Alf Ramsey took over in 1963. Under Ramsey, England experienced its greatest ever success, winning the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final against West Germany 4-2 after extra time. Geoff Hurst famously scored a hat-trick in the final. The 1966 World Cup was also held in England. England qualified for the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico as reigning cup holders. They reached the Quarter-finals but were knocked out by West Germany. England failed to qualify for both the 1974 and 1978 World Cups. In 1982, England under Ron Greenwood qualified for FIFA World Cup in Spain after a 12-year absence and were eliminated from the second round without losing a match. The team under Bobby Robson fared better as England reached the quarter finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup and finished fourth in the tournament four years later, which was the best performance in the World Cup since 1966.

Graham Taylor's short reign as Robson's successor ended after his England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but then the 1996 European Championships were held in England, and under new coach Terry Venables the team had its best ever performance at a European Championship, reaching the semi-final. The England team of the 1990s and 2000s hasn't progressed beyond the quarter finals of any international tournament apart from Italia 90 and Euro 96. Sven-Göran Eriksson took charge of the team between 2001 and 2006 and was the first non-English manager of England. Steve McClaren was appointed as the head coach following the 2006 World Cup. The reign was marked with little success, with England failing to qualify for the 2008 European Championships. McClaren left on 22 November 2007, after only 16 months in charge and making him the shortest tenured full time England manager ever since the inauguration of the post in 1946. He was replaced by the former Real Madrid and AC Milan manager Fabio Capello.

The Italian was the second foreign manager to coach England, after Eriksson, and took charge of his first game on 6 February 2008 against Switzerland. England won 2-1. England played Brazil in a friendly in Qatar in November as part of their World Cup Finals preparations. The match in Qatar was the 23rd meeting between England and Brazil since 1956 and resulted in a 1-0 win for Brazil. A friendly against Egypt in March 2010 was won 3-1. England's provisional squad of 30 players for the 2010 World Cup Finals was announced on 11th May 2010 and from this the final 23 players for South Africa will be selected. The first match for Capello's World Cup squad, who have been training in Austria, was against Mexico at Wembley Stadium on 24th May 2010 and resulted in a rather flattering 3-1 win with Ledley King, Peter Crouch and Glen Johnson providing the goals. A further friendly against Japan was played in Graz, Austria on 30th May with England again fortunate to win 2-1.

England got off to a slow start in the 2010 World Cup Finals with draws against the USA & Algeria but beat Slovenia to progress to the knock-out stages, where they met Germany. The Second Round match saw England completely outclassed and humiliated by a young German side who ran-out worthy 4-1 winners. Fabio Capello was retained for the 2012 European Championship qualifiers and England's first match was against Bulgaria at Wembley on Friday 3rd September 2010. England qualified for the Finals on 7th October 2011 as unbeaten group champions. England have been drawn to play Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova & San Marino in Group H for the Qualification Competition for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals to be held in Brazil. Capello resigned as England's manager in February 2012 and Stuart Pearce was appointed caretaker manager for the friendly against the Netherlands at Wembley, which the Dutch won 3-2. Roy Hodgson was appointed in May 2012 for the Euro 2012 Finals, where England reached the Quarter Finals unbeaten before going-out to Italy on penalties.

England's unbeaten run under Hodgson continued into the World Cup qualification for Brazil 2014. England International Football Team Stats 1872-2016 England – TalkFootball ‘Golden Generations’ Introduction The nation that created the game of football has been blessed with many great players and teams but has become the epitome of underachievement. England have only ever won one major trophy (World Cup 1966) despite much promise. In 1872, England took part in the first ever international football match when they drew with Scotland. This game was played at a cricket ground in Partick and was watched by around 4000 people. Strangely, during the game England midfielder William Maynard swapped positions with the goalkeeper Robert Barker. After the introduction of more nations into international football, the ‘Home Championship’ was set up in 1884 comprising of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. This was to carry on for a hundred years until 1984 and would be used as a qualifying group for early World Cups.

Disagreements with FIFA The entry of football into the Olympics in London saw a Great Britain team composed of players from the home nations take the gold medal in 1908 and 1912.However, after World War I, they did not take part in the next two. They also didn’t enter in 1928 over a payment dispute with FIFA and eventually withdrew from the association. Because of this, they weren’t invited to the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 or in Italy in 1934. When the World Cup in 1938 came around, Austria had to withdraw after being invaded by the Germans in the run up to the Second World War, therefore FIFA offered their place to England in an attempt to make them join again but the English FA refused. It is always wondered how the team would have performed if they had entered these World Cups. During this period England had won quite a few titles in the Home Championship, possessed the most well-developed league and had a strong team composing of players such as Stanley Matthews, not to mention recording friendly victories over world champions Italy and Germany.

Embarrassment At last, in 1950, England were part of the first World Cup after winning the Home Championships to qualify. However, it was not to be a happy debut for the squad. Despite goals from Stan Mortensen and Wilf Mannion to win their first match against Chile, England lost 1-0 in a famous match against an American side that had lost seven games on the bounce. Back in England the result was described as being “beaten by the Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck team.” Another loss to Spain meant that they went out at the first round. England’s status as being one of the best teams in the world was put to the test in 1953 when they played Hungary in a two-legged match, who also had some of the world’s best players like Ferenc Puskás. England were humiliated, losing 6-3 at Wembley, the first time they had lost a home game against a non-British team in 52 years. In the replay, Hungary carried on where they left off, thumping England 7-1. This is still England’s worst ever loss.

England made it through their group to the 1954 quarter finals but were eliminated by Uruguay 4-2. In 1958, the whole of England was to be shocked when a plane carrying the Manchester United team crashed on its return from a European match. Regular England players such as Tommy Taylor and Duncan Edwards were killed in the ‘Munich Air Disaster’ and England’s squad for the 1958 World Cup was severely depleted. They were duly eliminated in the first round group stage by the USSR. The 1962 World Cup team showed great potential courtesy of a young squad including players such as Bobby Moore and Jimmy Greaves. They were reasonably successful too, reaching the quarter finals and only losing to the eventual winners Brazil. However, the foundations had been set by Alf Ramsey and they were preparing themselves for what was to come in the next World Cup. Football Comes Home In 1966, England hosted the World Cup for the first time. There were almost major problems before the tournament even started when the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen. After a mass search, it was eventually found by a dog, Pickles, underneath a bush.

When the tournament did finally get underway, it started with a bit of an anticlimax. England drew their first game 0-0 with Uruguay and the fans booed the hosts off the pitch. The second match against Mexico was looking to end the same way until Bobby Charlton scored a long range goal and a Roger Hunt tap-in won them the game 2-0. Two more goals from Hunt against France sent England top of their group and through to the quarter finals against Argentina. Before the knock-out stages, England were dealt a blow when Jimmy Greaves injured his shin and was ruled out, so Ramsey gave a World Cup debut to Geoff Hurst. Instant reward follow, as a solitary goal from Hurst won the game for England. In a heated match, Argentina’s captain Antonio Rattin was sent off and Alf Ramsey was so disgusted with the Argentinians play that he would not allow his team to swap shirts after the match and labelled the opposition as “animals.” Next, England took on Eusebio’s Portugal in the semi-final. In a tight match, England took the lead after thirty minutes, with Bobby Charlton slotting the ball home after the Portuguese goalkeeper had made a save.

Geoff Hurst then laid the ball off Charlton to score the second goal. Eusebio responded with his eighth of the tournament from the penalty spot after Jack Charlton handballed on the line. Despite Portuguese pressure, England held out and progressed to a final against rivals West Germany. Final 98,000 fans packed into Wembley on July 30th 1966 to witness the greatest game in the history of English football. Bobby Moore led his team out to an immense noise and it was Martin Peters who had the first chance, his long range shot being saved by the German goalkeeper. Despite the bright start, it was West Germany who took the lead after Ray Wilson failed to clear a cross and Helmut Haller slotted the ball across Gordon Banks into the net. In response, Geoff Hurst equalised with a free header past Hans Tilkowski from a Bobby Moore free-kick which caught out the German defence. The omens looked good from then on as, just before half-time, Gordon Banks made a terrific save from a long-ranged effort courtesy of German captain Uwe Seeler.

England then took the lead with just under 20 minutes left in normal time, as Alan Ball’s corner fell to Hurst on the edge of the area and his shot was deflected up in the air onto the in-running Martin Peters who smashed the ball home. Unfortunately, in the last minute of normal time, Ben Cohen’s foul gave a free-kick to the Germans in which everybody was in England’s penalty area. Lothar Emmerich drilled the ball in and a goal-mouth scramble ensued until Wolfgang Weber scored in the last minute. England players, especially Banks, complained that Karl-Heinz Schellinger had handballed it in the area but a goal was given and the game went into extra-time. A great run and shot from Alan Ball forced a good save from the goalkeeper early on and resulted in a corner from which Bobby Charlton hit the post. England were piling on the pressure and it eventually paid off. Alan Ball chased a pass into the corner and his cross was well controlled by Geoff Hurst who turned and shot past Tilkowski onto the underside of the crossbar and the ball bounced down, either on or over the line.

The referee was not sure and consulted with his Russian linesman, Tofik Bakhramov, who allowed the goal. This goal has been hotly disputed ever since and special studies have been taken out to determine whether it really was a goal or not. Another controversial part is that in an interview with Bakhramov, he only mentioned the word "Stalingrad" when asked how he knew that it was a goal. This could mean that he gave the goal out of revenge for the ‘Battle Of Stalingrad’ during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The debate rages on to this day but there was plenty to come in the game itself. West Germany put pressure on the England defence in search of another late equaliser but they held firm and, in the dying seconds of extra-time, Geoff Hurst counter-attacked and smashed the ball high into the net to win the match 4-2 whilst fans were invading the pitch.

The goal, spectacular in its own right, was only amplified by Kenneth Wolstenholme’s famous words, “They think it’s all over, it is now!” With this goal, Geoff Hurst became (and still is) the first player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. More importantly, England had won the trophy in front of an estimated television audience of over 32 million people and a crowd of nearly 100,000. World Champions and 1970 In the 1966-67 season, England were beaten for the first time in two years and the first time since the World Cup by Scotland in the Home Championship. This prompted a mass pitch invasion from the Scots, who proclaimed themselves as ‘Unofficial World Champions’. England nevertheless moved to the 1970 World Cup as one of the favourites with a squad that was possibly stronger than in 1966 courtesy of individuals like Colin Bell. England strolled through to the quarter finals with two 1-0 wins but faced a very strong Brazil team consisting of players such as Pélé and Jairzinho.

The latter’s goal won the match for Brazil but the game is just as much remembered for a save from Gordon Banks. Pélé’s downward header was goal-bound until Banks clambered backwards to brilliantly scoop the ball over the bar. The performance from England was all the more impressive considering that Brazil team would go on to win the final 4-1 and be named as the best World Cup winning team of all time. England themselves played West Germany in the quarter finals in a repeat of the 1966 final. Goals from Alan Mullery and Martin Peters put England 2-0 after 50 minutes but a mistake from goalkeeper Peter Bonetti (who had replaced the ill Gordon Banks) allowed the opposition to get back in the match and an extra-time goal from Gerd Müller knocked England out. Failures In qualifying for the 1974, a loss in Poland meant that England had to beat the Poles in the return at Wembley. Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski made a string of wonderful saves to stop England from scoring and Poland took the lead. England scored a penalty later on but were unable to get the decisive winner, thus failing to qualify for the tournament.

Alf Ramsey was eventually sacked after 11 years in charge by the FA. Another poor qualification campaign meant that England missed out on the 1978 World Cup as well. New manager Ron Greenwood replaced Don Revie and, despite struggling, England stumbled through to Spain in 1982. An attacking team with players such as Bryan Robson and Glen Hoddle won all three group games and progressed to the second group. After drawing 0-0 with West Germany, England had to beat hosts Spain. In a drab game, Kevin Keegan missed a vital header towards the end of the match and they were eliminated, despite being unbeaten. The Robson era, the Hand of God and Italia 90 Bobby Robson became the new manager and brought a younger squad with the likes of Gary Lineker and John Barnes. They reached the quarter finals thanks to goals from Lineker, who became top-scorer in the competition and faced Diego Maradona’s Argentina. The diminutive forward gave Argentina the lead with a controversial goal where he jumped and ‘punched’ the ball into the goal.

Just a few minutes later though, Maradona sublimely beat five players on a 50-yard run and scored what is considered the “Goal Of The Century”. Lineker scored a consolation but England couldn’t find an equaliser and were eliminated. England found a new star player, Paul Gascoigne, for their attempt at the World Cup in 1990 and played well, beating Belgium and Cameroon to face West Germany in the semi-final. After a deflected free-kick gave West Germany the lead, Lineker equalised and the game went into penalties. A famous image of this match was when Gascoigne received a yellow card which would have ruled him out of the final and proceeded to cry. The start of a cruel penalty trend that would haunt England sent them out after misses from Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle. Euro 96 and the years of decline Under new boss, Graham Taylor, England failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1994 in the USA and he was replaced by Terry Venables, ready for Euro ’96, which would be held in England.

Wins over Scotland, including a penalty save from David Seaman and a great goal from Gascoigne which famously left Colin Hendry on his backside, and a famous 4-1 rout of the Netherlands saw England progress to the quarter finals. A goalless draw against Spain meant England would have to take part in another penalty shoot-out. This time, thanks to saves from David Seaman, England won, with Stuart Pearce redeeming himself after missing in 1990. England took an early lead through Alan Shearer against the now reformed Germany in the semi-final but an equaliser meant that it would be penalties again. This time, defender Gareth Southgate’s penalty was saved and they went out. In 1998, another set of new players including Michael Owen and David Beckham sent England into a second round match against rivals Argentina. After a wonder-goal from Owen and an Alan Shearer penalty, the game was level at 2-2. Just after half-time, David Beckham was fouled and whilst on the floor tapped the Argentine Diego Simeone, who somewhat exaggerated the contact and brought about Beckham’s sending off. After a goal from Sol Campbell was controversially disallowed, the game went into penalties, which England lost again.

A poor performance in Euro 2000 saw the end of Kevin Keegan’s short era as head coach and the arrival of England’s first foreign manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson. He made an immediate impact, masterminding a 5-1 thrashing of Germany in Münich and a last minute David Beckham free-kick against Greece saw England qualify for the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. In a repeat of the 1998 match, England played Argentina in the group stage and David Beckham exorcised his demons by scoring the winning penalty. In the quarter finals, they faced Brazil and took the lead through Michael Owen before a goal from Rivaldo and a freak free-kick from Ronaldinho eliminated them. Brazil would go on to win the tournament. ‘Golden Generation’ Yet another new star, Wayne Rooney, arrived on the international scene in Euro 2004 by scoring four goals in three games but his injury in the Quarter final against Portugal coincided with England’s elimination. Sol Campbell had another goal disallowed and England lost, as always, on penalties, with Portuguese goalkeeper Ricardo scoring the winning penalty.

In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, England had a plethora of talent including Steven Gerrard, John Terry and Frank Lampard. This was dubbed as the ‘Golden Generation’ of English football and they were tipped to win the trophy. Despite never impressing in the group matches, they won the group and beat Ecuador 3-0 to reach the quarter finals, again against Portugal. As always with England, the game contained major controversy, this time when Rooney was sent off for stamping on Ricardo Carvalho. After 2006, Eriksson stood down and the role was taken over by his assistant Steve McClaren. McClaren wasn’t the FA.’s first choice after being publicly turned down at the last minute by Portugal manager Luiz Felipe Scolari. McClaren’s reign initially started well with wins over Greece and Andorra but poor performances and defeats in Croatia, aided by a mistake from Paul Robinson, and Russia meant that England had to draw against Croatia in the new Wembley stadium to reach Euro 2008.

Errors from replacement goalkeeper Scott Carson and a lacklustre performance meant that they lost 3-2 and didn’t qualify for a major tournament for the first time in 14 years. McLaren was promptly sacked. The Ten Most Significant Figures In The History Of The England Football Team | Twohundredpercent The Ten Most Significant Figures In The History Of The England Football Team Posted by Ian | Nov 17, 2007 | Latest | 4 | Our very good friend Little Dotmund is our guest writer this morning, and he has decided to pore over who are the 10 most significant figures in the history of the England football team, “in chronological order, so as to avoid arguments”, he says. 1. HERBERT CHAPMAN Reason for inclusion: Tactical revolutionary The greatest pre-war manager in English history, Chapman won titles with both Huddersfield Town and Arsenal. But it was his approach which was the key here. Whilst everyone else was completely insular in their thinking, Chapman was constantly hungry for new ideas. He pioneered the use of floodlights after seeing a match in Austria lit by car headlights.

He devised the W-M formation which became the mainstay of football thinking around the globe until the Danubian School shook its foundations. He could have spared England the slow decline, had he not caught a fatal case of pneumonia, watching the Arsenal third team play on a freezing cold winter’s evening. 2. NANDOR HIDEGKUTI Reason for inclusion: First man to show England they were completely backward-thinking I could have picked any member of the great Hungary team who came to Wembley in 1953 and gave England a complete hiding, not to mention their visionary coach Gustav Sebes. I picked Nandor Hidegkuti for two reasons, though. Firstly, Hidegkuti scored a hattrick that day, the first goal coming in the 1st minute. Secondly (and more significantly), whilst Ferenc Puskas played a more conventional centre forward role on the pitch (albeit so well that he was impossible to keep down), Hidegkuti played in what is now called The Hole. This tactical innovation pulled England’s game-plan apart, and sounded the first warning shot that just THINKING we were the best wasn’t enough. 3.

SIR ALF RAMSAY Reason for inclusion: Coached England to what will probably be their only World Championship title No list like this would be complete without Sir Alf. In the team beaten by the Hungarians in 1953, he went on to a stellar coaching career built around his own revolutionary playing system, 4-1-2-1-2. For Sir Alf, the system was paramount, the players picked to fit around it. Jack Charlton was famously included not for being the best player, but for being the best player for Ramsay’s tactical vision. Sir Alf Ramsay laid the blueprint for international success which has been completely ignored with flying colours by every single one of his successors. 4. JAN TOMASZEWSKI Reason for inclusion: First in a long line of scapegoated opposition players blamed for England’s abject defeat, so as to not have to admit internal failings. Tomaszewski – “The Man Who Stopped England” – was the goalkeeper of the Poland team who came to Wembley in 1973. England needed to beat them to qualify for the 1974 World Cup in West Germany.

England’s torrid qualification campaign had included a 2-0 loss to Poland in Warsaw in 1972, Bobby Moore emblematically scoring an own goal and gifting the second by failing to control a pass. The Wembley match in 1973 has gone down in English football legend, Tomaszewski repeatedly keeping the English attackers at bay with some spectacular goalkeeping. Poland then made an incisive breakaway following Norman Hunter’s failed interception and scored. England equalised through an Allan Clarke penalty late on, but it wasn’t enough. History records, with typical English arrogance, that it was Tomaszewski’s other-worldly performance which kept an England team otherwise guaranteed qualification to the World Cup at bay. History does not record the fact that the Poland team went to West Germany the following summer and finished third in the tournament, beating Brazil in the third-place match, as well as having the tournament’s Golden Boot winner in Grzegorz Lato. 5. DON REVIE Reason for inclusion: First England manager to resign Revie had Sir Alf Ramsay’s impossible shoes to fill, so in retrospect his was always going to be a thankless task.

History has been unkind to Revie – he’s remembered as the coach of the most loathed successful team in English football, his 1970s Leeds United machine, – and a failed England manager. The fact of the matter is, no-one could have done a better job with the players he had. They were individually good but collectively dreadful – a fact further emphasised by the fact that for their club sides, the same players were part of teams bringing home European silverware as a matter of course. Revie makes the list because he was the first man to see the England job as just that, just another job. And when he had grown sick of taking the flack in that job, he went off and found one he liked better. 6. KEVIN KEEGAN Reason for inclusion: The ultimate Great English Hope England will be all right. We have got Keegan. We have got Gascoigne. We have got Gerrard, Rooney, Owen, Lineker, John Barnes, Beckham. Brazil were not all right because they had Pele, they were all right because they had a team.

And amongst this team were players like Jairzinho, Pele, Gerson, Tostao, Garrincha, Clodoaldo, Rivelino, Vava, Carlos Alberto… It’s a widely stated MEDIA FACT that any of the current English players could walk into any team in the world, without stopping to realise that for most of them, it would be their first ever experience of the team ethic. Keegan is the first in a long line of English players who were brilliant, but not brilliant enough to win games all on their own. He’s also one of the few I feel sorry for, being as he was so clearly focussed on helping England to do well. The current players occupying the Keegan position seem fairly content just to help themselves. The less said about his time as England manager the better, really. 7. BRIAN CLOUGH Reason for inclusion: First person to be passed over by the FA for non-footballing reasons Brian Clough is arguably the greatest ever English football manager.

Along with Herbert Chapman, Clough is the only manager to win the English League with more than one club, a feat made all the more remarkable in Clough’s case by the fact he did it with hyper-unfashionable teams from the provinces. The FA took one look at him and thought he’d be outspoken and controversial, make waves in the national game, completely turning it on its head. He’d be a PR disaster! They were, of course, right, as Clough later admitted himself. They are also the most asanine reasons a FOOTBALL Association could ever give for not appointing a national FOOTBALL team manager. England’s loss was Nottingham Forest’s gain – Clough went on to win consecutive teams with the team in the late 1970s. Just consider that for a moment. Really consider it. 8. BOB PAISLEY Reason for inclusion: First person to not want the wretched England job at all Bob Paisley is the most successful English club manager of all time. Whilst England were floundering like a beached whale in the 1970s, the Liverpool team he and the rest of Bill Shankly’s Bootroom team had assembled completely straddled the world.

For all this, he never dreamed of managing the England team, that poisoned chalice which had already done for the career of Don Revie. Fair enough, says I. 9. MATTHEW LE TISSIER Reason for inclusion: Best English player to only win eight caps (EIGHT)! He was frequently overweight, often lazy, and he smoked. He played for unfashionable Southampton, who were perpetually on the cusp of relegation from the top flight. Without Le Tissier, though, Southampton WOULD have sunk without a trace. He scored 162 league goals for the Saints, in an era when the rest of the whole team combined managed about 7 per season. He was a luxury player, perhaps, but he was a complete genius on a football pitch, able to conjure something out of absolutely nothing. His England career spanned 1994 to 1998, under Venables and Glenn Hoddle (who, you might have thought, would have been more sympathetic to a player of Le Tissier’s ilk). He should in fact have won 100 caps, starting in the Graham Taylor era.

He could have player Le Tissier on his own in midfield and it would have been more effective that Platt, Palmer, Sinton and Daley. 10. SVEN-GORAN ERIKSSON Reason for inclusion: First overseas coach of the England national team An unexpected piece of sensible thinking from the otherwise bewildered FA. The fact that Sven failed to win absolutely everything, ever (including Rear of the Year), however, has allowed the FA to slip back into their normal fug of lunacy. “We had a foreign coach, it didn’t work, so we’ll just get the first English bloke with a UEFA Pro licence who walks through *that* door to be our next manager. Oh, hello Steve”. Share: History of Tactics- Links to tactics included History of Tactics- Links to tactics included 39Likes History of Tactics- Links to tactics included A brief history of football tactics: In this thread I want to be able to give a brief history of football tactics throughout time and how they have evolved: from the 2-3-5 pyramid, to the WM, to our modern day 4-3-3’s and 4-4-2’s.

Hopefully people will find it interesting and will be able to try and recreate some of these tactics into FM . In the beginning so to speak football had no tactical structure like today, the first organised games that were played with only feet (and not hands as well) were similar to the games of football you play at school- 1 at the back, 3 in the middle and 7 up front.... The Pyramid: However by the 1880’s or late 1870’s a formation was invented in England called the pyramid a 2-3-5, with the centre half (not the same position as a centre back in modern times) the fulcrum of the team an all rounder, who would initiate play with long passes to dribblers on the wings. This formation would be used up until 1925 and the change in the offside law. The WM- The FA was forced to change the offside law in 1925 due to falling average goals (2.54 goals a game, a similar figure to modern day football, but unheard of at the time when free scoring football was the norm) and due to the low scoring games attendances began to decline.

The offside law at this point demanded that three opposing players (usually a goalkeeper and two defenders) had to be between him and his opponents goal. The FA decided on the solution of needing only two players to be in advance of the forward and thus the game changed forever. Because of this change the WM was born here is an explanation of the WM: It is generally accepted that Herbert Chapman, formerly manager of Northampton, Leeds and Huddersfield and as of 1925 manager of Arsenal, and his captain Charlie Buchan converted what was a central midfield player — the center-half — of a 2-3-5 into a central defender in response a change made in the offside law, which before 1925 had required three opposing players be between an opponent and the goal when the ball was played. The change provided extra coverage at the back — previously two defenders was more viable because both, theoretically, could always play with the opposition in front of them, otherwise that person was offsides.

From this platform, Chapman spent five years assembling an Arsenal squad that fit his vision, a team that could play fast, counter-attacking soccer, getting the ball forward quickly to take advantage of the space left by the gobs of men teams were throwing forward at the time. Which they did quite well, scoring 127 goals in the league in 1930-31. (Nevermind that that was also the year that Aston Villa set the record for most top-flight goals in a season with 128). Think of the shape almost as an accordion: in defense, the three non-forward lines fall back, defending more or less with seven men at varying levels and with the wing halves – that’s Bob John and Charlie Jones – and defenders only applying heavy pressure close to the 18-yard box. Then when the ball was won, the players expanded, the forwards moving forward looking for the long pass, the middle stretching, until the wing-half line caught up with them and they were attacking with seven men once more.

In that sense, they were among the first, certainly in England, to make use of the idea that would spark generations of Dutch teams — that the pitch should be made smaller when your opponents have the ball and larger when you do. The WM would be played in various ways up until the 1950’s and 1960’s (depending on the country and the players) including a variant used by the Italian teams of the 1930’s that won two world cups. Hungary 1953 (The Golden Team): Perhaps the Original total football, in that it was a completely fluid formation in which the whole team played as one (the manager would claim this to be 'socialist football') with the forwards tracking back to defend as well as the defenders getting forward to support the play. The golden team were also the first team to evolve their formation into a 4-2-4 a formation which would become synonymous with the world beating Brazillian teams from the late 1950's up until the early 70's. The teams most famous victory (even more than winning gold in the olympics in 1952) was against England at Wembley in 1953.

England had previously never been beaten at home up until this point, but were comprehensively beaten 6-3 by this great Hungarian side (the score line flattered England). The Hungarian football team of the 1950’s redefined football, revolutionising the way the game was approached and breaking numerous records. Between June 1950 and the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 the Magnificent Magyars compiled a competitive record of forty-two wins, seven draws and only one defeat. The tragedy is that the defeat came in the final of the 1954 World Cup. The formation itself was a 3-2-1-4, with a deep lying striker behind the two main strikers, which eventually evolved into becoming a 4-2-4, with the deep lying striker coming deeper and becoming the attacking part of a 2 man central midfield (the same formation which the Brazilians would use in the 1962 world cup final. Real Madrid 1955-1960 This is perhaps the greatest club side of all time. It is certainly the most successful - having won the European Cup for an incredible five times consecutively after its inception.

Di Stefano is the common link and the greatest player in this team of a stars - starting as centre-forward but dropping back to midfield, and even helping to organise the defence. Gento was one of best left wingers in history and the team gained a star to rival Di Stefano when Ferenc Puskas joined in 1958 after defecting from communist Hungary. He would play at inside left but frequently moved into space in the box and was a great goalscorer. His arrival forced the legendary French playmaker Raymond Kopa onto the right wing, where he was also superb. Complementing these attacking players Santamaria was the rock at central defence. The team on the left is the strongest line-up in this period - after Puskas arrived and before Kopa left the club, to be replaced by the talented Luis Del Sol. This team would have played in the 1959 European Cup Final but for the surprise last minute omission of Puskas, who was not liked by the coach, Carniglia.

Miguel munoz replaced Carniglia the following season and Puskas played in the next European Cup Final: the 7-3 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt which is commonly considered to be the greatest football match of all time. Puskas and Di Stefano were both still playing when the team made the Final in 1962 and 1964. By the time they won it in 1966 it was largely a different team, although Gento was still there, making him the player that has won more European Cups than anyone else. This was a team of stars, an idea which has defined the club to the present day. In that way, this team bears more than a few similarities to the Galacticos side of the early 2000s. However, this team was much better balanced and much more sucessful. Birth of pressing... In the USSR Compressing Space. In todays game this is seen as the ordinary, but in the 50's and the 60's and the teams I've mentioned here; this was not the case. Players had much more time on the ball than in modern times, and would have plenty of time to think.

Space on the football pitch is one of the most important aspects of the approach to the game by the best and most innovative teams and managers. Rinus Micheles Ajax (masters of total football) pressed. As do the modern Barcelona of Messi, Xavi and Iniesta. The masters of the game understand that manipulation of space on the pitch either creating it with attackers, or by closing it and making it smaller while defending. One of the first managers to encourage this and to undertsand this was a manager called Viktor Maslov (affectionally known as Granddad). He encouraged players to win the ball back higher up the pitch, and to attack the player and space rather then stand off him when defending (Zonal Marking). The Great Brazil sides of 1958-1962 (and 1970):Two world cups back to back, with perhaps two of the best players ever in Pele and Garrincha.

Thought of as better man to man than the Brazil team of the 1970 world cup (they actually had a great defence unlike in 1970) The team was also tactical revolutionaries twice over: with a new 4-2-4 formation in 1958 they then switched to a 4-3-3 in 1962, with Zagallo dropping back they won the World Cup without Pele. Brazil 1970 4-2-4 Catenaccio and il Grande Inter- Catenaccio was, in the words of Gianni Brera, “The only way to play football.” Catenaccio predicated itself on always having a spare man in defense. It accomplished this by using man-marking; each Inter player knew who he was meant to be keeping tabs on in his half of the field. The spare man was the sweeper, for those Inter teams, Armando Picchi, cleaning up anyone who slipped their marker long enough to provide a threat.

Man Marking – the key aspect to the defensive phase is that all opponents will be tightly man marked by the central defenders, the wing backs and the defensive midfielders, with the mobile libero double teaming wherever the ball approaches. Counter Attacking – The main creative thrust of the system were the fantasist (which is a trequista, in Italian- literally someone who excites people with their wizardry, think of Totti and Del Piero in modern times), a central playmaker and sometimes the libero (although in this inter sidethe sweeper Picchi was incredibly defensive and only scored one goal in his entire time at Inter) . Efficiency of the forwards was paramount since very few chances were created, (very surprisingly Inter never had a brilliant striker during this period). Catenaccio was used by nearly all Italian teams but only one team did it perfectly, Il Grande inter (the Great Inter) of the 1960’s who won two European cups and got to the final only to be beaten by the brilliant attacking force of Celtic in 1967. The formation varies from a 5-2-3, to a 4-3-3.

It’s main downfall in the end was a lack of midfield players- only having two midfieilders in the middle was not enough to stop teams getting run over, and the Ajax team of the early 1970’s and total football illustrated this perfectly. The desired formation would mean having to remove a man from the midfield and replace him with a sweeper, meaning ultimatley that Catenaccio would get overwhelmed in the midfield. The torante, (right winge who tracked back) was supposed to cure this however since most teams did not have gifted enough players as Le Grande Inters Jair this never really worked, and the style of play would seem even more negative than it actually was. Perhaps one of the other reasons why the formation was so unpopular was due to (apart from accusations of cheating from Herrera's inter, namely in a european cup semi final with Liverpool) the fact that other Italian sides did not have the attacking outlet of Fachetti in the Left Wing Back position. The players who played in Herrera's il grande inter, accounted their failure in the European final in 1967 due to tiredness and over exhaustion.

This was because Herrera would push his players mentally and physically to the limit, and by 1967 many admitted they could not carry on anymore. Other Notable teams who used a form of Catenaccio AC Milan Perhaps a more attacking side than il grande Inter were Nereo Rocco's Milan from 1962- 69 (two different sides, of which Gianni Rivera was the star in both sides) In the 1960s a new Milan team won the prestigious trophy twice, equalling the success of their city rivals Inter. Nero Rocco's team, like Inter, was based on a solid sweeper system but perhaps offered more attacking intent. Prati and Hamrin were the flying wingers; Sormani was the centre-forward (in 1963 it was the great Brazilian Altafini); but the real talent behind both teams was Gianni Rivera their attacking midfield maestro.

The personnel was almost completely different in the two European finals (World Cup stars such as Hamrin and full-back Schnellinger joining for 1969) but Rocco remained in control, the system was the same with the same player roles and, above all, Rivera was the playmaker in both teams. Ironically AC Milan beat Cruyff's (admittedly young, it would be another two years until they would win the European cup) Ajax in the 1969 european cup final. In Modern times, sides have been compared with Catenaccio style football. Notably- Jose Mourinho's Inter in 2010, and of the time of writing this La Gazzetta dello sport compared Chelsea's semi final win in the Champions league to catenaccio. England 1966: "There's not much to add that you probably don't already know. England's finest hour; made all the brighter due to her relative lack of success since. Alf Ramsey was a tactical revolutionary, inventing the 4-4-2 and the hardworking, versatile midfield, which has since become a staple of the game since.

Maybe England's association of that system with glory continues to hold back necessary evolution." While loved in England and thought of as revolutionairy by English people, in Europe and South America this tactical revolation was merley seen as a catch up for the British game- that would soon be surpassed by Total Football. However many English sides would win European cups with the 4-4-2 due to their hard working attitude not seen abroad. This is not to detract too much from English football's achievements with the 4-4-2, Brian Clough's provincial Nottingham Forrest side is very respected abroad for the great football they played, and this was made possible by England's 1966 side. Total Football: This Ajax side changed football. Rinus Michels, with the help of the brilliant on-field orchestrator Johann Cruyff, developed the famous Total Football system with this Ajax side. Players interchanged positions and supported each other in an exciting fluid foootball style. It took the team to three consecutive European Cups. Michels left to coach the Dutch national team, where he used the same system and the same core players.

What’s interesting is how that position switching worked: Not so much the fact that it asked the forward, midfielder, and defender on each wing and through the middle to interchange but that they were able to do so and maintain any semblance of shape — especially midfield solidarity. A big part of this is the way Ajax manipulated space with their shape: They expanded when they had the ball and contracted when they didn’t. The midfielders played as wide men as they moved the ball down the field and would come inside toward goal as they moved to the attacking end. When the other team had possession, they’d tuck in more narrowly, so it wasn’t a lone central midfielder getting passed around in the center of the field. Wingers would chase the ball from their zone into the center of the field and back, and once they regained possession, the whole squad would nova outward to create the maximum amount of space on the field. These Ajax squads did not tiki-taka up and down the field. They moved the ball forward with a vengeance, constantly pushing their opponents.

Players who had won the ball would pass to the man moving into space whether he was five or ten or forty yards ahead, and he seemed to be forty yards ahead a lot, especially on the moves that resulted in shots on goal. As David Winner quotes winger Sjark Swaart, “In four passes we would be in front of goal. Nowadays they take twenty passes — backwards, sideways, backwards. We didn’t play like that. We went for the goal.” Recreation Tactic: USSR- Total Football Zona Mista: The Zona Mista was a tactical solution devised by the Italian coaches to marry the best features of both Zonal Marking and Catenaccio. In this system, the primary defensive tactic was Zonal Marking, however the libero was assigned to man mark dangerous opponents. This new system was incredibly potent, and the”real” reason today’s generation hear stories of “Italian Defense.” From the late seventies onwards, under the guidance of Giovanni Trapatonni the Italian giants Juventus started a cycle of dominance both within Italy and in Europe. The culmination of the Italian Football dominance was in the 1982 World Cup victory.

For the Zona Mista defensive system, the consecration came in the form of Maradona’s tears and Gentile’s immortal words – “Football is not for ballerinas.” Juventus circa 1984 The Italians ruled the world with this tactic for several years before there was another shift in tactics that again helped shape modern tactics. The 3-5-2,: and the birth of the deep lying forward, the fifth member in midfield. From the accounts I’ve read there is nothing particularly brilliant about the tactical change by Argentina in 1986 and they perhaps would not have won the World Cup if it were not for Maradona, or if teams decided to attack them with wingers... What the tactic does show is the use of wingbacks not used previously in a formation. And also most importantly in the case of Maradona using a deep lying forward almost an extra man in midfield instead of a second out and out striker a phenomenom that would carry on until today. This 5th man in midfield instead of a striker was also used with Michael Platini who would drop deep and collect the ball as well as going after goals.

Arrigo Sacchi, Zonal Marking, and the death of the libero In the 1960's Milan was one of the Italian teams who defined Catenaccio and the use of the libero to amazing effect- the idea caught on across Europe, and was used heavily up until the 1990's. It was Sacchi with Milan who was the main change in this- Using his Zonal marking system, a Zonal system so effective, that its no ones ever really managed to get close to it again. Marking was moved from player to player through different Zones, he also introduced the modern pressing game- unlike total footballs pressing game it was not based on superior athleticism. Sacchi's side had probably the best defence the world has ever seen, but the team was not defensive, destroying barcelona and real madrid to go on to win back to back European Cups

Question: Which future England football manager played in the team beaten 6 - 3 by Hungary at Wembley in 1953?
Answer: ALF RAMSEY